How do private protected areas contribute to tropical conservation? An assessment of voluntary private conservation efforts in Indonesia.

Keywords: High Conservation Value (HCV), High Carbon Stock (HCS), deforestation, supply chain governance, land change model
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Activist campaigns and government requirements have led hundreds of companies that handle agricultural commodities to make pledges to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains. To meet these commitments, many agricultural producers in tropical regions – where deforestation is driven largely via the expansion of globally traded commodities - have identified forests within their farms and plantations for protection and management. In doing so, they set aside “private protected areas”. Here we assess the current contribution of tropical private protected areas to conservation and consider whether greater adoption might improve their conservation impact. Specifically, we hypothesize that lands identified for conservation by private landholders in the tropics have the potential to complement regional public parks by 1) protecting a relatively high proportion of ecosystems and species most at-risk due to commodity expansion and 2) providing connectivity for movement of individuals through landscapes dominated by agriculture. Yet, we predict that private protected areas can only meaningfully contribute to regional to global conservation goals if they are adopted by many producers. We test these hypotheses by comparing the biogeographic attributes of a unique dataset of private protected areas across Indonesia with those of nearby public protected areas. We then assess how designation of more well-managed private protected areas could contribute to conservation goals including forest and biodiversity protection, increased connectivity, and avoided biomass carbon emissions.